71 Trader

The wheel of the gliding horse filled with his trade items, rolled smoothly down the mountain path as Chún pushed it steadily ahead of him in the late morning light. He was dressed in one of the sets of clothing he had purchased during his last visit, with his cloak masquerading as its original form over the top of the ordinary clothing, hiding the fact that the shirt and pants were now short on the calf, waist and wrist.

It had taken longer than he had expected to traverse the now vastly extended distance between his Immortal's cavern and the grotto; despite leaving at crow-rise he had only reached the portal to Golden Crow Planet that the grotto anchored in the last shi before highest crow flight.

He had travelled at his highest speed for two and a half shi, with the gliding horse and other items stored in his cloak, something he was thankful was possible - he would have taken several days to reach the portal if he had been required to manually roll the gliding horse the whole way at a pace that did not damage it.

The wheeled cart was composed of an unusually strong wood and Essence reinforced, but was not designed to operate at that speed - to say nothing of the items it was carrying.

However, now that he was returning to Planet Golden Crow and presenting himself as a wandering Jianghu Relic Hunter, he had to behave appropriately; thus he had taken the items out, put the harness for the gliding horse on, focused his Essence into the three dantian forms that Yijing had shown him and told the cloak to appear ordinary - just before exiting the portal.

Now, he was ambling down the old mountain path from the geese pasture, presenting the picture of a Relic Hunter pushing his harvests to market. He was cautious, using his Essence sense to sweep ahead to avoid giving away the fact that he was coming down from the mountain, but he met no one.

As the light from the Golden Crow began to strengthen and the dust rose from his walking down the trail with the gliding horse, he grimaced. He had gotten too used to life on the Mountain where the abundant levels Essence kept everything much cleaner and fresher, despite the amount of life. Back in a 'normal' location everything smelled dusty, stale and sour.

Once he reached the foothills he repeated the same route as last time, circling around the village in an arc and coming onto the dirt path to the village from the north to make it appear that he was travelling in from the wilderness. The occasional sour stench of urine, faeces and dust from the path made him wrinkle his nose and sneeze, "This drawback of Cultivated senses is never mentioned in the stories," he mumbled unhappily as he pushed his gliding horse down the trail.

Within a few Kè Chún started passing or being passed by other people, which only intensified his suffering. He wondered if he used to smell so bad before he had become a True Cultivator and eventually resorted to circulating Air Essence around his nose and mouth to purify the air before he breathed it in.

Gradually, the walking trail widened out until it began to resemble an unpaved road. The wider the path got, the more people he was passed by or passed himself with his steady pace. The traffic was much higher than last time, likely precisely because it was market day, and filled the road with chatter, people greeting yelling laughing and even doing preemptive trades as they saw something they wanted before reaching the village.

Almost all of the others were on foot like him - hunters, trappers, fishermen, prospectors. Most carried large sacks or bags, a couple had small carts similar to his own. As he drew closer to the village, he passed a few larger farmers carts pulled by donkeys, mules and in one case an ox, who were obviously coming from outlying fields or other non-market villages.

He was rather surprised to see any farmers carts coming in from the direction of the wilderness - he had not known there were any villages further out than the village he had grown up in.

"Hoy, Relic Hunter," A genial aged voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Chún looked over to the side and saw an older man striding along beside him with a much larger gliding horse strapped to his body. Rather than being a flat platform like his - although he was quite proud of his innovation of rails around the sides to keep things from sliding off easily, his gliding horse was still essentially a flat tray - the older man's gliding horse looked like a small shrine, with a pagoda like structure rising from the tray.

The gliding horse seemed like it would be much heavier than his - being both wider and longer than his as well as being several levels high - but the older man pushed it along in his harness without any sign of strain. Chún could hear the rumble of more than one wheel under the tray, which explained how such a wide gliding horse could be balanced.

"Fellow Daoist," replied the young teen, feeling quite proud of remembering the greeting from the stories, as the older man was quite clearly a Consumer, moving such a large construct with no sign of effort. It did seem strange that one of the normally arrogant Consumers would be walking along a market road like a beast of burden, but that made it more interesting.

The Elderly man threw his head back and laughed heartily. "I am just a simple peddler with a few small tricks that I learned in my youth; however, the rest of my years have taught me to spot bargains…" the older man lowered his voice, "...your items are very interesting."

Chún shrugged, "I have been fortunate this season, I managed to gather a few things, so I should be able to earn enough to stay warm this winter."

"You are taking your gatherings to sell at the market?" questioned the older man as they walked along.

"Yes, today is market day, so I should be able to get a better price," answered Chún cheerfully.

"Hmm, is that so," replied the Consumer. After a moment, he looked over and nodded, "You might get a better price than on a normal day, that is true, but…"

Chún frowned, his curiosity pricked, "Senior, I am young, as you see. Please explain to me what is troubling your more experienced eyes."

"I came to this market day on purpose, to meet you," replied the older man, lowering his voice until it could not be heard by those with normal hearing over the rumble of the wheels of the gliding horses on the packed dirt.

Chún blinked in surprise, "To meet me, Senior? How could Senior know of me… I am only a small Daoist…"

"I happened to pass through the village the same day you last visited… two weeks ago, right?" he paused as Chún nodded in agreement, then continued, "I happened to notice the herbs you sold at the apothecary and I saw the blacksmith making a simple blade with the boar tusk you sold him - I bought them."

"Ah…" the teenage True Cultivator smiled, remembering haggling with the skinflint villagers for an extra withered fruit in return for his work, "I suppose they charged you a great deal…?"

"Ha," laughed the older man, "I am an expert trader, so I was not taken advantage of. But they still made a much better deal from you than they should have - and I do not think they will be willing to let your newest harvests go so easily."

"If I am prepared to sell them, what is their concern?" asked Chún carefully, but he felt his heart sink, even has his link to the Mountain pulsed with agreement. Just the small things that he had brought last time was enough to cause trouble? Then… he looked down at the goods on his gliding horse and his face fell. If that was the case, once they saw his better, healthy herbs, cleaner furs, bone and the medicinal pills they would not let him off.

"I had worried about this, Senior. I had thought I was low key enough…" he sighed bitterly and slowed to a stop, steering his cart over to the side of the road and a little into the grass. Mentally he questioned the Mountain, "Is this man being honest?"

"Normally it would not be a problem," replied the other man who had followed Chún off the road and rested his own cart beside Chún's, "but in recent years, the village has been taken over by a group of bandits."

"Bandits?" Chún's eyes narrowed. Since when had the village been controlled by bandits? Certainly, most of the people running shops or trades in the village had been unwilling to help him, or even pay him fairly for his work, but the village was not rich, no one had much to spare - everyone always told him so.

"There are some honest people left of course, but anyone in important positions has gradually been replaced with these people. They control all the trade in raw materials that comes into the village, passing on the best treasures to their superiors," explained the other man, "this is why the village has become poorer in recent years despite being the first point of trade for all the harvesters and hunters from Fusou - they are keeping the profits and not improving or maintaining the village more than the minimum."

Chún frowned, "What proof do you have of this? Perhaps you are telling me this so that I would sell directly to you instead?"

The other man shrugged, "True, but either way you do not lose out. I will pay a fair price and not cheat you as they would. I will also not be gouged by the racketeers and thus there will be a benefit for me as well."

In the back of Chún's mind there was a pulse of agreement and the Mountain 'spoke' quietly, 'He believes what he is saying is true.'

The Consumer looked at Chún, his face stern, "if they see you come in with such a big haul they will of course take it from you before you can sell to anyone else - else they would be losing money. Before it did not matter - you could only sell to them at their prices - today is market day, you can sell to many directly at better prices."

The other man waved a finger in admonishment, "and since you have a treasure but are not strong enough to keep it, why should they pay some nameless Hunter? Especially since they will want to know where you found such treasures for themselves, it would be better for them if you were no longer available to complain."

"They would regret that," replied Chún calmly as he felt the Mountain bristle in the link, "I still have goods to pick up that I ordered from last visit - but I see no harm in letting you look through my goods before I reach the village."

"That is all I ask," replied the older man in satisfaction, shrugging off the harness of his cart and setting it down, "whether you choose to continue or not is up to you - you may not even have to go to the village if I have everything you want.

"Clothes? Sugar? Live chickens and rooster?" asked Chún cheekily.

"Livestock? Are you a Cultivator or a farmer?" asked the other man, clearly taken aback, straightening up from where he had been bending over his cart, unlocking something, judging from the various rattling and clanking sounds his actions made.

"Sometimes I wonder that myself," replied the young teen with a laugh, as he undid his own harness, "so Senior, what are you looking for?"

The Consumer pushed something on his cart and it split down the middle and unfolded out to either side, turning into a small peddler's stall, exposing an array of drawers, shelves and cupboards. Most were empty, but there were some goods and various items scattered about the shelves.

The older man reached down to one side of the unfolded shelves and swung up a table that crossed between the two sides of the small stall, leaving him behind it, then he looked up and smiled at Chún.

"I have some customers who were quite impressed with your Essence plants last time, I was hoping to grab some more from you this time as soon as possible to reduce lost potency."

"Hmm," replied Chún thoughtfully, wondering how much he should reveal, "You would agree to pay more for higher potency?"

"Within reason, of course," agreed the trader, "Of course, some potency will be lost as I transport it to my customers, so I must take that into account."

"Of course, I understand," replied Chún, "So, if you did not lose any potency you would pay… ten times the price, that would be fair…"

The other man laughed, "Sure, if there was a miraculous way to keep a plant as fresh as when it was growing in its home soil. But such a thing does not exist. Even the best formations only slow the loss of Essence - I should know, as I am something of a dabbler in those."

Chún smiled and reaching down into his gliding horse, pulled out one of the smallest Dao Pots overflowing with its carefully planted and flourishing Essence plant and set it wordlessly on the table.

The other man blinked and picked up the pot, carefully looking at the plant, rubbing its leaves and sniffing it, parting the leaves to reveal the soil, which to the young teen's eyes was glowing with Essence.

When the old man looked up, his face was pale. "I… where…"

Chún shrugged. "I expect just that pot is worth a great deal. It keeps the plants alive as if they were never harvested."

The trader shook his head. "I... cannot afford to pay... what this is worth," he answered regretfully, "No one outside of the wealthy Clans or Cultivation Sects could."

Chún raised his eyebrows, "Your customers?"

The trader pursed his lips and tapped the table. "They might - but I do not have the capital on me to give to you now."

Chún nodded and took the plant off the table, quickly and carefully placing it back in his gliding horse. "I suppose I should have expected it," he sighed, "Perhaps I should go straight to the nearest city with wealthy Clans myself…"

The trader twitched and looked down at Chún's gliding horse. "You have… many Essence plants in those pots…"

Chún smiled brightly, "Still growing! That one was one of the smallest."

"You are mad!" The trader hissed urgently, "You are carrying around an Empire's ransom in ancient relics! The moment others realise it - they will start a bloodbath to take them for themselves."

"They may be relics," replied Chún evenly, "but all they do is keep plants healthy. Hardly worth killing for."

The old trader blinked again, clearly taken aback, then extended out his hand, "Could you... let me have another look at that pot please?"

Chún held up five fingers, "Five taels of silver."

The trader reared back as if struck, obviously preparing a round of impassioned bargaining, then froze, "Silver… wait, you are not asking for Essence Stones?"

The younger man snorted, and gestured at his gliding horse, "I lack everything but Essence Resources. Essence Stones will not get me far when I'm trying to buy livestock, needles, thread or ordinary clothes, for example."

The older man started laughing, "You found something - and you want to guard it. So you have the opposite problem most Cultivators do - you need everyday goods and a way to sell treasures without becoming a target for every ambitious Cultivator out there. Do not worry," he reassured, holding a hand up as Chún stiffened warily, "I have no intention of learning the specifics of what you found or where it is. I have no interest in becoming a target or slaving away at harvesting myself, that is for young Cultivators like yourself."

Chún relaxed slightly at his locus' affirming pulse, "Makes sense. And so does your point about finding a discrete buyer for the items that might cause... an untoward reaction. So… here is my offer." The teen paused fractionally to observe the trader's reaction, who flapped his hands in a 'go on' gesture, "I show you what I have, you indicate the items that would attract the most attention and I sell them to you for silver and gold taels or trade. That way, I should still be able to sell the less remarkable items at the village market, without causing a commotion - but the racketeers should still be satisfied that they get a cut of the sales and are less likely have greed overtake good sense."

"An overly optimistic analysis, but you might be able to pull it off - maybe. At least this way, when they come to appropriate your stock, they will not get the best part of it," agreed the trader.

"I trust you can defend yourself if they find out you purchased some of my harvest first?" Chún checked.

"I have few tricks," answered the trader, holding out his hand with five taels of silver on it, "the pot if you please…"

The young teen smiled amiably and exchanged the pot full of Essence herb for the silver. The trader nodded and began examining the pot again, this time appearing to fall into a light meditative trance in the process.

Eventually he shook himself free of it and took a deep breath, "I am a reasonably competent Formations Master, but I have never seen such a Formation - it almost seems like it is naturally occurring - but it was clearly embedded into the pottery somehow. Truly much has been lost to time and war."

Chún smiled mildly in agreement to the general statement, "I am correct then, Senior? The pot only maintains the Essence levels and balance required by the plant?"

The older man nodded, "Yes. A very prosaic use of a highly advanced technique. Possibly the ruin you have found was once the grounds of an ancient sect specialising in medical techniques and they developed this as a way of keeping their stock fresh even after harvesting… I do not know."

"Or a trading sect," joked Chún, "after all, you will be able to sell these as still viable, living Essence plants - for a great deal more than regular harvested Essence herbs."

"Still a very big treasure," remarked the older Consumer, "if somewhat limited in scope…"

"Speaking of which…" Chún pulled out a fu pot full of the small pills he had concocted, "I have these also. They seem to heal most wounds below a certain level of severity - perhaps your theory of a medicinal sect has some basis."

The trader picked up a pill and rolled it about a wrinkled palm. "Hmm, some healing properties…" Without warning, he shot it into his mouth with a sly expression.

Chún shook his head, "Five silver…" he tapped for emphasis on the table.

The elder snorted, "It does not do much… I feel slightly refreshed, a few aches and pains gone… it might sell well for lower level cultivators…"

"Maybe mortals?" suggested Chún carefully.

The trader stopped in mid lambaste, "Why would… oh, Medicinal Sect… makes sense. OK, five silver per pill - I can sell it for a lot more to wealthy low levels and Mortals." There was a sly glint in his eyes that suggested he might be planning to do more with the pills than that.

'He is thinking of finding an Alchemist to study and replicate them,' remarked the Mountain in the link, 'Not that it will do him much good.'

Chún smiled back as if he did not have a clue, 'The best sort of deal is the sort where both parties feel they got the advantage,' he replied in the link to the Mountain, while gesturing at his gliding horse and encouraging the trader to pick and choose as they started haggling.